IPsec Contract Job Trends

Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring IPsec skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 522 386 404
Rank change year-on-year -136 +18 +126
Contract jobs citing IPsec 123 139 178
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.25% 0.47% 0.41%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 2.58% 3.77% 3.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 87 79 107
10th Percentile £300 £283 £263
25th Percentile £431 £415 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £400
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% +25.00% -15.79%
75th Percentile £538 £600 £515
90th Percentile £565 £649 £539
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £490 £375
% change year-on-year +7.14% +30.67% -16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 2
10th Percentile - - £18.98
25th Percentile - - £19.69
Median hourly rate - - £21.25
75th Percentile - - £22.69
90th Percentile - - £23.33
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £19.00
% change year-on-year - - -69.66%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

IPsec falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 4,775 3,691 5,424
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.53% 12.48% 12.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,931 2,271 3,207
10th Percentile £263 £220 £209
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £485 £495
Median % change year-on-year +3.09% -2.02% -3.41%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £470 £485
% change year-on-year +2.13% -3.09% +2.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 290 169 421
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.13 £16.86
Median hourly rate £27.69 £41.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -33.28% +3.75% +110.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.13 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £80.20 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.25 £31.79 £47.50
% change year-on-year -4.84% -33.07% +150.00%

IPsec
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing IPsec relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

IPsec job vacancy trend in the UK

IPsec
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing IPsec.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing IPsec

IPsec
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing IPsec over the 6 months to 14 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for IPsec in the UK

IPsec
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing IPsec.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing IPsec

IPsec
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing IPsec within the UK over the 6 months to 14 June 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -125 101 £520 - 19
UK excluding London -114 86 £525 +7.14% 24
South East -30 36 £525 +25.00% 11
Work from Home -47 34 £445 -20.89% 9
London -104 15 £501 -3.75% 3
East of England -17 14 £525 +0.96%
West Midlands -62 12 £340 +13.33% 1
Midlands -70 12 £340 -20.00% 1
North of England -90 11 £475 -5.00% 4
Scotland -16 10 £538 +22.86% 4
Yorkshire -45 6 £625 +25.00% 1
North West -69 5 £300 -40.00% 3
South West -28 3 £700 +10.67% 2
North East -33 1 - -

IPsec
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 2 (1.63%) Confluence
Applications
1 9 (7.32%) MS Visio
2 3 (2.44%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 45 (36.59%) Azure
2 26 (21.14%) AWS
3 12 (9.76%) Entra ID
3 12 (9.76%) GCP
4 9 (7.32%) SaaS
5 7 (5.69%) PaaS
6 6 (4.88%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 6 (4.88%) IaaS
7 5 (4.07%) OCI
7 5 (4.07%) Serverless
8 4 (3.25%) Azure DevOps
8 4 (3.25%) GitHub
9 3 (2.44%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (1.63%) Microsoft 365
10 2 (1.63%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 1 (0.81%) Amazon ELB
11 1 (0.81%) AWS CloudTrail
11 1 (0.81%) Cloudflare
11 1 (0.81%) CloudFront
11 1 (0.81%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 87 (70.73%) Firewall
2 69 (56.10%) WAN
3 58 (47.15%) VPN
4 56 (45.53%) BGP
5 50 (40.65%) LAN
6 46 (37.40%) Network Security
7 42 (34.15%) OSPF
8 36 (29.27%) SD-WAN
9 32 (26.02%) SSL
10 31 (25.20%) MPLS
11 25 (20.33%) DNS
11 25 (20.33%) Wireless
12 24 (19.51%) Cisco ASA
13 20 (16.26%) Wi-Fi
14 19 (15.45%) Cisco Nexus
15 13 (10.57%) BIG-IP
15 13 (10.57%) VLAN
16 12 (9.76%) NGFW
16 12 (9.76%) VXLAN
16 12 (9.76%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.63%) Oracle Exadata
2 1 (0.81%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.81%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (0.81%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 3 (2.44%) JIRA
2 2 (1.63%) Git
2 2 (1.63%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.81%) AppScan
3 1 (0.81%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.81%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.81%) GitLab
3 1 (0.81%) Metasploit
General
1 18 (14.63%) Documentation Skills
2 10 (8.13%) Social Skills
3 7 (5.69%) Manufacturing
3 7 (5.69%) Public Sector
4 6 (4.88%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (4.07%) Finance
6 4 (3.25%) Retail
7 3 (2.44%) German Language
7 3 (2.44%) Italian Language
7 3 (2.44%) Spanish Language
7 3 (2.44%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.63%) Legal
9 1 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.81%) Military
9 1 (0.81%) Police
9 1 (0.81%) Polish Language
9 1 (0.81%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 58 (47.15%) Network Engineer
2 22 (17.89%) Architect
3 16 (13.01%) Senior
4 14 (11.38%) Cisco Engineer
5 11 (8.94%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 11 (8.94%) Designer
5 11 (8.94%) Network Architect
5 11 (8.94%) Network Designer
6 10 (8.13%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 9 (7.32%) Security Architect
7 9 (7.32%) Senior Network Engineer
8 8 (6.50%) Security Engineer
9 7 (5.69%) Developer
10 6 (4.88%) Consultant
10 6 (4.88%) Technical Architect
11 5 (4.07%) Firewall Engineer
11 5 (4.07%) Network Security Architect
11 5 (4.07%) Network Security Engineer
11 5 (4.07%) Senior Architect
11 5 (4.07%) Senior Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (14.63%) SAML
2 13 (10.57%) 802.1X
3 8 (6.50%) LDAP
4 6 (4.88%) OAuth
5 5 (4.07%) OAuth2
5 5 (4.07%) OpenID
5 5 (4.07%) Web Services
5 5 (4.07%) XACML
6 3 (2.44%) ADO
7 1 (0.81%) Oracle GoldenGate
Miscellaneous
1 29 (23.58%) Data Centre
2 12 (9.76%) Operational Technology
3 10 (8.13%) PKI
4 9 (7.32%) Onboarding
5 7 (5.69%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 7 (5.69%) IoT
6 6 (4.88%) SCADA
7 5 (4.07%) Hybrid Cloud
8 3 (2.44%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (1.63%) Algorithms
9 2 (1.63%) CESG
9 2 (1.63%) Cloud Native
10 1 (0.81%) Anti-Spyware
10 1 (0.81%) Clustering
10 1 (0.81%) CMDB
10 1 (0.81%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 1 (0.81%) Fibre Optics
10 1 (0.81%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.81%) Management Information System
10 1 (0.81%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 19 (15.45%) Linux
2 17 (13.82%) Windows
3 3 (2.44%) CatOS
4 1 (0.81%) Kali Linux
4 1 (0.81%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (23.58%) Zero Trust
2 25 (20.33%) Cybersecurity
3 23 (18.70%) Load Balancing
4 18 (14.63%) DevOps
4 18 (14.63%) High Availability
5 17 (13.82%) Cloud Security
5 17 (13.82%) Migration
5 17 (13.82%) Network Monitoring
5 17 (13.82%) Technical Leadership
6 16 (13.01%) Roadmaps
7 15 (12.20%) Customer Requirements
7 15 (12.20%) Network Design
7 15 (12.20%) SIEM
8 13 (10.57%) ITIL
8 13 (10.57%) Security Architecture
9 11 (8.94%) Enterprise Architecture
9 11 (8.94%) Network Segmentation
9 11 (8.94%) Project Delivery
10 10 (8.13%) Design Patterns
11 9 (7.32%) Network Management
Programming Languages
1 16 (13.01%) Python
2 9 (7.32%) PowerShell
3 6 (4.88%) SQL
4 2 (1.63%) Bash
5 1 (0.81%) Lisp
5 1 (0.81%) Perl
5 1 (0.81%) PL/SQL
5 1 (0.81%) RPG
5 1 (0.81%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 50 (40.65%) Security Cleared
2 36 (29.27%) Cisco Certification
3 35 (28.46%) SC Cleared
4 30 (24.39%) CCNP
5 18 (14.63%) DV Cleared
6 13 (10.57%) CCNA
7 9 (7.32%) Degree
8 6 (4.88%) CCIE
9 4 (3.25%) CCDP
10 3 (2.44%) CISSP
11 2 (1.63%) AWS Certification
11 2 (1.63%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (1.63%) CCIE Security
11 2 (1.63%) CCIP
11 2 (1.63%) CESG Certified Professional
11 2 (1.63%) CHECK Team Leader
11 2 (1.63%) CREST Certified
12 1 (0.81%) Computer Science Degree
12 1 (0.81%) Master's Degree
12 1 (0.81%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (11.38%) NIST
2 9 (7.32%) NCSC
3 8 (6.50%) QA
4 7 (5.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (4.88%) Disclosure Scotland
5 6 (4.88%) NIST 800
6 5 (4.07%) SLA
7 2 (1.63%) GDPR
7 2 (1.63%) ISA99
7 2 (1.63%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 2 (1.63%) JSP 440
7 2 (1.63%) PCI DSS
7 2 (1.63%) RMADS
8 1 (0.81%) COBIT
System Software
1 19 (15.45%) Active Directory
2 18 (14.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (9.76%) VMware NSX
4 5 (4.07%) RACF
5 2 (1.63%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.81%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.81%) iptables
6 1 (0.81%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.81%) ProxySG
6 1 (0.81%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 17 (13.82%) Single Sign-On
2 10 (8.13%) Ansible
3 9 (7.32%) FortiGate
3 9 (7.32%) Terraform
4 2 (1.63%) CASB
4 2 (1.63%) Cisco CUCM
4 2 (1.63%) QRadar
5 1 (0.81%) Argo
5 1 (0.81%) Data Guard
5 1 (0.81%) Grafana
5 1 (0.81%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.81%) Nessus
5 1 (0.81%) OPNET
5 1 (0.81%) Oracle RMAN
5 1 (0.81%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.81%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.81%) Suricata
Vendors
1 74 (60.16%) Cisco
2 57 (46.34%) Palo Alto
3 33 (26.83%) F5
4 28 (22.76%) CheckPoint
5 26 (21.14%) Fortinet
6 23 (18.70%) Juniper
7 22 (17.89%) Microsoft
8 20 (16.26%) VMware
9 15 (12.20%) Aruba
10 12 (9.76%) Zscaler
11 10 (8.13%) SolarWinds
12 6 (4.88%) ServiceNow
13 5 (4.07%) Meraki
14 4 (3.25%) BiZZdesign
14 4 (3.25%) Okta
14 4 (3.25%) Splunk
15 3 (2.44%) Becrypt
15 3 (2.44%) Blue Coat
15 3 (2.44%) NetScout
15 3 (2.44%) Starlink